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I hope everyone survived the holidays safe and sound. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. Tis the season to watch out on the road, and ive got a couple of tips to get home safe. First, don't drink and say oh, im fine, i can function ok, i just had [put in a number here] drinks or beers. Maybe you can, maybe not. Not many people care if you gamble with YOUR life, but nobody wants you to gamble with SOMEONE ELSES LIFE. Let your spouse drive, get a hotel room, sleep on the couch, just DON'T DRIVE DRUNK. Tip #2, stay off the road on the holiday nights. Here in the USA, the night of 12/31 might as well be called death night, so many accidents involving alchohol. Fatality accidents. As a trucker, ive seen so many accidents, i refuse to drive the truck on New Years Eve. One that sticks in my mind, a soldier returned from 2 tours in the middle east, in combat, 2 purple hearts, multiple medals for heroism, gets back to the states... celebrating, he has one beer. On the way home, he is 'T-boned' by an suv, who ran a stop sign, driven by a drunk. Killed instantly with 3 friends..... Don't let this happen. Tip#3 Use your CPAP ! The more and the better the sleep you get, the better will be your reaction time in a crises. Does anyone else have any tips?

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Hi Dave!! Happy New Year!! Hope your holidays were great, and I'm glad you were safe at home, and I applaud your decision to keep your big ol' truck off the road on 12/31!!

Just wanted to say I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said here, including keep on keepin' on with CPAP.

Let's ALL work hard to stay safe and be respectful of others' right to be safe on our highways.

Susan McCord :-)
Dave, this advice is excellent, and will stick with me for many, many years to come. You've done a good thing by sharing these tips. It just might save lives.

Apart from New Years Eve, are there any other nights/ days that are High Risk from your perspective and that we should avoid the roads on?
4th of july holiday week end, and of course the Thanksgiving holiday are [statisticaly] very deadly to be on the road. It is real shame that drunk or high drivers are so prevalent on our important holidays, that we [mostly] sober drivers try to avoid those days. When I must drive during those dangerous times, I try to practice defensive driving, because the question is not if there will be fatalities on the road, but HOW MANY?! I hope everyone who reads this does likewise.
I do have a question. Does using the CPAP have any measurable effect on our reaction time, or our abilities? I mean this in reference to our driving abilities, but does anyone know that our big CPAP experiment is helping us react? I know for myself, I feel as though my reactions are quicker, but I have no stats to back that up.
Dave, I don't have the studies handy at the moment, but I'm quite sure the answer to your question is a resounding YES, CPAP use helps improve reaction time in driving. The reason is that driving drowsy is a hazard similar in importance and danger to drunk driving. To the extent CPAP treats our sleep breathing problem (and we know it does) so that we are getting more restorative sleep, all of the cognitive abilities that deteriorate with sleep deprivation will improve: including reaction time. If you need studies to back this point up, I'm sure I can scrounge some up for you.

dave foster said:
I do have a question. Does using the CPAP have any measurable effect on our reaction time, or our abilities? I mean this in reference to our driving abilities, but does anyone know that our big CPAP experiment is helping us react? I know for myself, I feel as though my reactions are quicker, but I have no stats to back that up.
Thx for the responce. I dont need studies, 'cause i know about CPAP, HECK WE LIVE IT. but there are those who need proof, and it was for thier benefit, not mine. I am glad to have the voice of reason, an expert [that would be you] say what we hoseheads experience. in our society, where we seem to glamorize those who work well beyond the sleep limits, and talk about work ethics, we should be talking about sleep deprivation and what it does to you. 'early to rise, late to bed, makes a man healthy [?], wealthy and DEAD'.
Fatigue. Welford (1968, 1980) found that reaction time gets slower when the subject is fatigued. Singleton (1953) observed that this deterioration due to fatigue is more marked when the reaction time task is complicated than when it is simple. Mental fatigue, especially sleepiness, has the greatest effect. Kroll (1973) found no effect of purely muscular fatigue on reaction time. Philip et al. (2004) found that 24 hours of sleep deprivation lengthened the reaction times of 20-25 year old subjects, but had no effect on the reaction times of 52-63 year old subjects. Van den Berg and Neely (2006) found that sleep deprivation caused subjects to have slower reaction times and to miss stimuli over a test period that lasted two hours. Cote et al. (2009) had the same conclusions about two days of restricted sleep, and also found that the more restricted sleep was, the worse the deterioration in reaction time, and the subjects seemed to be compensating for this by more mental effort (measured by high-frequency EEG waves). Takahashi et al. (2004) studied workers who were allowed to take a short nap on the job, and found that although the workers thought the nap had improved their alertness, there was no effect on choice reaction time.
http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/161/3/866

Conclusion

Cognitive performance tests measuring coding speed, reaction time, and attention all improved with CPAP therapy.

I'm back, I missed you guys
Rock, we missed you. Ok, this bro-mance is getting out of control. But it's true. Glad to have you back.

Rock Hinkle said:
http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/161/3/866

Conclusion

Cognitive performance tests measuring coding speed, reaction time, and attention all improved with CPAP therapy.

I'm back, I missed you guys
AWE, I love you too Mike. jnk don't think I have not been paying attention to your post. You make sleep look sexy!

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